Depression and the Development of Political Habits

• In Event: Engagement and Participation in US Health Politics

Abstract

Recent research has found that depression impairs political participation (Ojeda 2015), that the negative effect of depression is especially accentuated in young adulthood (Ojeda and Pacheco 2017), and that it cuts across racial and gender groups (Ojeda and Slaughter 2019). These findings together suggest that depression also impairs the development of participatory habits, not just participative acts. Due to data limitations, however, this hypothesis has yet to be tested. Using a unique nationally-representative dataset of Americans that include measures of depressive symptoms and the habitualness of voting, posting political content on social media, protesting, attending political meetings, boycotting products, displaying a yard sign, signing a political petition, and working for a political campaign, we find that depressive symptoms impair the development of participatory habits. This finding is concerning given the rise in depression in recent years as well as its high presence among women and lower-class citizens. We conclude by arguing that depression merits more attention from scholars of political behavior and inequality.

Authors

• Christopher Ojeda, University of California, Merced

• Julianna Pacheco, University of Iowa